let the pimping begin

[cheaterparts]

Great work Cheater. I like how you have run the anchor trolley through the empty upper holes in the line holders for the grab ropes.
The steel plate for the sounder looks cool too. That is designed to have the cables running through the plate for when you flip the lid to hide the sounder during surf launching.
The brass inserts are really useful and high quality. I have cut down snapper racks that I place in the two forward facing rod holders. Great while I am stationary, but they are a pain to store while I am paddling.They will fall over the side one day.

the rope for the anchor trolley has a bit of resistance so should stay put even when the waters a bit rough , the trolley on my king fisher would move sometimes
the paddle keep on that side can be wraped around the anchor trolley ropes locking them easy enough if it does creap

the stainless plate for the sounder has the cables running though it and the cable exit through the hinge - I must say storing the cable took a bit of work there is 6 meters of cable on these down imaging transducers and are quite large in dia

my side rod holder should be ok for trolling I measured of the kingfisher which I had no problem trolling lures
if I have to move the mounts that OK

[cheaterparts]

With a couple of days on the water with the new beast my first Impressions - it's fast
the kingfisher was not a slow yak by any means but this thing does go well with .6 - 7 Kph a very easy pase
in fact paddling into an 8 - 10 kt head wind the gps was showing 6.5 kph with out me working hard
on flat water no tide assist I had the yak doing 8.4 kph at one stage

The ice box it perfect just slide the gummies in theres so much room

on rough bumpy and confused waves it tracks like an arrow never getting knocked off line ( we had so bumpy bits over the W/E to test it )

I found the rudder hard to put up and down the rope pull seamed to bind making it real hard to move
today I removed the rudder and turned the pivot up the other way this lifted the rudder an inch or so and had all the cables and ropes lined up better -- now moving it up or down is much easier , however the rudder now sits above the rear deck and not in the rudder rest moulded into the rear of the kayak
It's some thing I'm thinking about atm

Another thing the anchor trolley was on the LHS as thats the side the brass threaded inserts were , so that where I fitted it
I've changed that to the RHS today as it was not comfortable for me to work from that side and in higher tide flows like you find in other parts of W/P I would prefur to work for the side I'm user to, of cause the paddle keeper is now on the LHS



note the rudder is now sitting clear of the kayak and this is the new rear anchor trolley mount made out of a piece of 3 mm Stainless plate
again this saves drilling holes in the kayak

one other thing is when you stop the floor fills up with a layer of water about 10 mm deep that runs out when you are paddling also sitting side saddle getting stuff out of or putting fish in the ice box the side that your legs are on gets deeper
I've made some scupper plugs to try up for the next trip

I'm sure a few more things will change in the next few trips but on the whole its comfortable to paddle and fish from

[Graybalz85]

Nice no hear Steve, always liked the look of those yaks.

[GoneFishn]

My Prowler Elite does the same with the water sitting in the foot wells. Personally I wouldn't plug the scuppers at all.
Mods look great

[Toadhunter]

I have had the same issue with the rudder being hard to raise and lower on the water. Great to see the way you are customising it.

[cheaterparts]

My Prowler Elite does the same with the water sitting in the foot wells. Personally I wouldn't plug the scuppers at all.
Mods look great

I'll give the scupper plugs a go they are easy to remove if need be - they are made from 25 mm rubber chair leg feet with a bit of cord through them as handles

I have had the same issue with the rudder being hard to raise and lower on the water. Great to see the way you are customising it.

well it was much easier today in the back yard while tinkering , I'll see how it goes on the water

[Justo]

Interesting thread Cheater, the new yak's looking like a real weapon now.

It's a bit clean for the mud king though

[GoneFishn]

I have had the same issue with the rudder being hard to raise and lower on the water. Great to see the way you are customising it.

well it was much easier today in the back yard while tinkering , I'll see how it goes on the water

This is how I have configured my rudder control (up/down). Doing it like this makes it a lot easier.
If you don't understand I'll take some photos of mine if you want.

Single rudder control

To convert the dual control to a single control using shock cord to lower the rudder and a 2:1 purchase to raise the rudder.

1/ With the rudder in the up position cut the down cord in front of the rudder bracket leaving enough line to form a loop about 100mm away from the bracket.
2/connect some shock cord from the loop to the saddle at the back of the fish bin.
3/ Adjust the tension on the shock cord so that it is strong enough to lower the blade and hold it down but not so tight that you have trouble raising the blade.

4/ Now with the blade in the down position cut the up haul and fit a small pulley as per the photo above

[Bretty]

Nice work Cheater
How are you finding paddling this vs the kingy
What sort of cruising speed are you up to now
Oh and how's the new sounder

[cheaterparts]

Nice work Cheater
How are you finding paddling this vs the kingy
What sort of cruising speed are you up to now
Oh and how's the new sounder

first thing I noticed was the bow seamed to slap a bit going head on into waves that the kingies dont do at all , the kingies bow dives into the wave
the slaping in not like an outfit though and it doesn't seam to slow you down

The weather ( wind ) on the W/E made it hard to work out normal crusing speed but heading into an 8 - 10 kt head wind the GPS was showing 6 - 6.5 kph and I wasn't working hard
I did notice 8.4 kph at one stage but I'm guessing a 7 kph would be a sustainable speed with out any problem -- it is quite a bit quicker than the kingy and as you know that wasn't slow

The sounder has flatten my battery twice in 2 days but its a 4 year old 8.6 ah and probably past it best ( like me )
so I'll be investing in a 15 or 18 ah
the sounder itself with take a little learning -- I had a problem with the Nav maps I only had a full green screen even though the GPS was working
I droped into the boat shop here in Cranbourne where I bought it
Guess what I had it set on 5 meter so there where no channels near me -- when they turned the screen on in the shop and adjusted it to 500 meters then I could see a map of JJ with my tracks on it
some thing simple but an ajustment I hadn't thought of